Riding the wave of the Nu Metal revolution, Fatal Switch is a Montreal-based Nu-Metal Band. Their latest single is Apex off their upcoming EP, Black Sky Anthem – Dusk,  produced by Kevin Jardine (Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, 311, In Flames, Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys). The record takes everything they built and turns it inside out. They promise heavier, catchier, more venomous, yet somehow more human. It’s an record that bleeds for the listener, the kid who got jumped, the crowd surfer with no home to return to, the fan who feels invisible.

Frontman Steve Tobin joins us for a Why I Love where he asks why has there to be just one, and comes up with a melting pot of influences that feed into the band.

BREAKING THE RULES

I’ll start this with something that probably breaks the rules of this entire feature. I don’t believe in championing one band.

The idea that you can hold up a single artist and say, “This is it, this is the one that defines me,” has never sat right with me. To me, that sounds more like marketing than music. It sounds like you’re buying into the PR machine, not letting the music actually change you.

That’s not how it worked for me.

For as long as I’ve been alive, different artists have met me in different phases of my journey, and they’ve done so like old friends showing up out of nowhere, right when I needed them most. Their voices filled voids. Their sounds cracked open spaces in me I didn’t know were locked.

A Tribe Called Quest was like dopamine in musical form. Their rhythm, their tone … I almost resented how late I was to hearing them. Like, how could this have existed without me knowing?

Eminem blew open every barrier in my head about what an artist could be: fearless, raw, ruleless. Without realizing it, he paved the road for the genre-mashing chaos of Limp Bizkit, whose sound made it okay to hybridize, without asking permission.

Nirvana was there when the world felt numb. It didn’t need polish, just pain and release.

Sneaker Pimps were my secret. My treehouse in the clouds.

Green Day made me feel like a kid smashing glass in a candy shop.

And then there’s Aerosmith. I can still see myself watching the Big Ones VHS on repeat as a kid, soaking in Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler and realizing not only that sex sells, but that even rock can punch you in the gut when it’s done right.

TRANSFORMATIONAL

These moments weren’t just passive. They were transformational. Each one shifted the universe a little.

It wasn’t until later in life that I started leaning heavier, Anthrax, Slipknot, Megadeth, etc…

All of them left fingerprints on the sound and soul of Fatal Switch.

The riffs from Aerosmith. The story-weaving and dream-states of Pink Floyd.

The soul and groove of The Roots.

The tribal truth-telling of Tribe.

The lyrical venom of rap legends.

The scream-from-the-pit rage of Korn.

So yeah… I love them all.

But I love them in different ways, for different reasons, during different versions of myself.

They helped shape the mosaic of who I am now, a guy screaming into a mic, mixing metal with hip-hop, grief with groove, chaos with clarity. A guy who never chose just one sound, and never will.

If you want to hear what all those influences sound like when they collide, check out Apex by Fatal Switch, our latest single – “Think Linkin Park meets Limp Bizkit and RATM on a WWE stage.”

Thanks to Steve for giving vent to all the bands and music which have helped shape what Fatal Switch has become.

Fatal switch online: Website / Facebook / Instagram / Youtube / Bandcamp

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

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